Go up Bayterek Tower and touch the golden handprint
Go up the 97 m tower that symbolizes Astana; see the city from the golden sphere at the top and place your hand in the founding president's handprint — and photograph it.
Read the story ↗COUNTRY GUIDE / 38 cities and places
Kazakhstan.
A little closer.
97 discovery ideas · 1 sourced stories. Choose a place, explore its details and find an experience to try.
Filter all discoveries in this country →Follow the story.
Cities and places
- Aktau1 discovery ideas
- Aktobe1 discovery ideas
- Almatı16 discovery ideas
- Aqmol1 discovery ideas
- Aral1 discovery ideas
- Asa1 discovery ideas
- Astana28 discovery ideas
- Atyrau1 discovery ideas
- Bayanaul1 discovery ideas
- Botaqara1 discovery ideas
- East Kazakhstan1 discovery ideas
- Esik3 discovery ideas
- Fort-Shevchenko1 discovery ideas
- Kegen4 discovery ideas
- Korgalzhyn1 discovery ideas
- Kostanay1 discovery ideas
- Kuryk3 discovery ideas
- Kyzylorda1 discovery ideas
- Lenger1 discovery ideas
- Marqakol1 discovery ideas
- Oral1 discovery ideas
- Orgiel1 discovery ideas
- Pavlodar1 discovery ideas
- Qarqaraly1 discovery ideas
- Saryozek1 discovery ideas
- Saumalkol1 discovery ideas
- Semey3 discovery ideas
- Shaul’der2 discovery ideas
- Shchuchinsk1 discovery ideas
- Shetpe3 discovery ideas
- Shymkent2 discovery ideas
- Taraz1 discovery ideas
- Türkistan5 discovery ideas
- Ulytau1 discovery ideas
- Ust-Kamenogorsk1 discovery ideas
- Uzunagach1 discovery ideas
- Zhezqazghan1 discovery ideas
- Zhosaly1 discovery ideas
Aktau
Sunset on the Caspian shore in Aktau
Watch the sun set over the sea in the only major Kazakh port city on the Caspian — and photograph it.
Aktobe
Steppe and proximity to the Ilek salt lakes in Aktobe
Tour the surrounding salt lakes and vast steppe scenery from the central city of the western steppe — and photograph it.
Almatı
See discoveries (16) →Local tastes at the Green Bazaar (Zelyony Bazar)
Wander Almaty's legendary bazaar for horse meat, dried fruit, Korean salads and dairy — and photograph it.
View discovery ↗Tour the art-filled stations of the Almaty Metro
See underground art on a short metro ride through deep, marble-and-mosaic stations — and photograph it.
View discovery ↗Panfilov Park and the 28 Guardsmen Memorial
Walk the shaded park around the monumental war memorial and the eternal flame — and photograph it.
View discovery ↗Aqmol
Remember the women's gulag at the ALZHIR Museum
Learn the suffering of the Stalin era at the museum of the camp where 'traitors'' wives were exiled — and photograph it.
Aral
See the ship graveyard at the Aral Sea
See the rusting ship hulls stranded in the desert by the retreating sea, near Aralsk — and photograph it.
Asa
See the terracotta ornament of the Aisha Bibi Mausoleum
See the elegant 12th-century love-mausoleum near Taraz, clad in terracotta tiles each with a different pattern — and photograph it.
Astana
See discoveries (28) →Tour the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation (the Pyramid)
See the dove-stained-glass hall at the top of Norman Foster's 62 m glass pyramid — and photograph it.
View discovery ↗Breakfast with baursak and Kazakh tea
Try baursak (fried dough balls) with milky Kazakh tea and jams at a morning spread — and photograph it.
View discovery ↗Drink kumys and shubat (camel milk)
Taste kumys (fermented mare's milk) and shubat (camel milk), the essence of nomadic drink culture — and photograph it.
View discovery ↗Atyrau
Stand on the Europe-Asia border bridge in Atyrau
Step between two continents in one stride on the bridge over the Ural River; feel the atmosphere of the caviar city — and photograph it.
Bayanaul
Rock lakes at Bayanaul National Park
Swim and walk among the granite rock formations, pine forest and Lake Zhasybai on the steppe — and photograph it.
Botaqara
Tour the gulag museum at KarLag (Dolinka)
Learn the history of the era of repression at the central museum of the Soviet forced-labor camp system — and photograph it.
East Kazakhstan
Soak in the healing waters at Rakhmanov Springs
Relax with mountain views in the radon-rich thermal springs deep in the Altai — and photograph it.
Esik
Hike the Valley of Castles in the Charyn Canyon
Walk the trail descending to the river among red rock towers in what's called the 'mini Grand Canyon.' — and photograph it.
Watch eagle hunting with a berkutchi
Watch a Kazakh hunter's golden-eagle hunting display on the steppe; hold the eagle on your arm — and photograph it.
Almaty-Charyn-Kolsai-Kaindy nature road trip
Drive the classic 3-4 day route from Almaty taking in the canyon, alpine lakes and sunken forest — and photograph it.
Fort-Shevchenko
Tour the Shakpak-Ata rock mosque
See the carvings and necropolis of the cross-plan 10th-century rock-cut underground mosque — and photograph it.
Kegen
See the sunken forest at Lake Kaindy
See the dead spruce trunks rising from the clear water of the lake formed by the 1911 earthquake — and photograph it.
Spend a night in a yurt (nomad tent)
Experience traditional nomadic hospitality by the stove in a felt yurt at a steppe or mountain camp — and photograph it.
Try kuyrdak and manti cooked in a kazan on the steppe
Taste kuyrdak (offal fry) and steamed meat manti at a yurt table — and photograph it.
Tour the mountain lakes at Kolsai
See the three stepped alpine lakes among the Tian Shan's fir forests, on foot or horseback — and photograph it.
Korgalzhyn
See the flamingo colony at Korgalzhyn (UNESCO Saryarka)
Watch thousands of birds on the steppe lakes at one of the world's northernmost flamingo breeding grounds — and photograph it.
Kostanay
Learn the Torgay steppe geoglyphs in Kostanay
Discover the mysterious Torgay geoglyphs — giant earthworks visible from space — at the regional museum — and photograph it.
Kuryk
See the otherworldly chalk formations of Bozjyra
Stand among the jagged white cliffs and tent-peaks of a plateau that was once a seabed — Kazakhstan's most iconic landscape — and photograph it.
See the striped (zebra) mountains at Kyzylkup
Photograph the hills layered in red-and-white stripes from iron oxide.
Visit the underground Beket-Ata mosque
Visit Beket-Ata, one of the Kazakhs' holiest pilgrimage sites, carved into a desert cliff — and photograph it.
Kyzylorda
Watch a rocket launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome
Witness a Soyuz launch on a permitted tour from the historic base where humanity reached space — and photograph it.
Lenger
See the wild tulip fields at Aksu-Zhabagly (April-May)
See Greig's tulips in bloom at Kazakhstan's oldest nature reserve, in the homeland of the tulip — and photograph it.
Marqakol
See pristine nature at Lake Markakol
Tour unspoiled forest and wildlife in the reserve around the Altai's high mountain lake — and photograph it.
Oral
Tour the old merchant city in Oral (Uralsk)
See 19th-century Russian merchant architecture and Pugachev history in the historic center of the Ural Cossacks — and photograph it.
Orgiel
See the Scythian-Saka tombs at the Berel kurgans
Tour traces of the Scythian nomadic horse culture unearthed from the frozen kurgans of the Altai — and photograph it.
Pavlodar
Walk along the Irtysh River in Pavlodar
See the blue-domed Mashhur Zhusup mosque on the riverside boulevard of the Irtysh, the great northeastern river — and photograph it.
Qarqaraly
Tour the steppe forest at Karkaraly National Park
Walk among lakes and caves in the pine-forested granite mountains rising from the steppe — and photograph it.
Saryozek
See the Singing Dune at Altyn-Emel
Climb the 150 m giant dune that hums when sand slides; also tour the colorful Aktau mountains — and photograph it.
Saumalkol
See the Imantau-Shalkar lakes on the Burabay route
Relax at the quieter alternative lakes in the forest-and-lake region of North Kazakhstan — and photograph it.
Semey
Tour the Abai Museum in Semey
Learn about the Kazakh enlightenment at the memorial museum of Abai Kunanbayev, father of Kazakh literature — and photograph it.
See Semey's historic suspension bridge
Cross the elegant suspension bridge over the Irtysh River and feel the atmosphere of the old merchant city — and photograph it.
See the Semipalatinsk Polygon and its memorial
Understand the history of the Soviet nuclear test site through the 'Stronger than Death' memorial and museum in Semey — and photograph it.
Shaul’der
Stand in the ruins of the ancient city of Otrar
Tour the mound of the great Silk Road caravan city whose massacre triggered Genghis Khan's western campaign — and photograph it.
Visit the Arystan Bab Mausoleum
See the tomb of Yasawi's teacher, the stop traditionally visited before Yasawi on pilgrimage — and photograph it.
Shchuchinsk
Lakes and rock scenery at Burabay (Borovoe)
See Lake Burabay, the Okzhetpes rock and the Zhumbaktas (Sphinx) stone in the region called the 'Kazakh Switzerland.' — and photograph it.
Shetpe
See the Valley of Balls (stone spheres) at Torysh
Wander the valley scattered with hundreds of giant spherical stones formed by nature — and photograph it.
See the white landscape of the Tuzbair salt flat
Stand on the wide salt flat at the foot of the Ustyurt plateau, which turns to a mirror after rain — and photograph it.
Walk around Mount Sherkala
Circle the lone white mountain shaped like a 'tent' and a 'lion' rising from the steppe — and photograph it.
Shymkent
Wander a Central Asian bazaar in Shymkent
Buy spices, dried fruit and local bread at one of the south's busiest markets — and photograph it.
Tour Shymkent's historic citadel and old town
See southern Kazakh culture at the reconstructed citadel and the ethnographic park around it — and photograph it.
Taraz
Tour the Karakhan Mausoleum and ancient city in Taraz
See the Karakhanid mausoleum and old bathhouse ruins in Taraz, a 2,000-year-old Silk Road city — and photograph it.
Türkistan
See discoveries (5) →Tour the Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi (UNESCO)
Stand in Central Asia's grandest Timurid building, commissioned by Timur with its unfinished portal; see the giant Tay Kazan cauldron inside — and photograph it.
View discovery ↗See the walls of the ancient city of Sauran
Walk the double walls and adobe ruins of Central Asia's best-preserved medieval walled city — and photograph it.
View discovery ↗Watch the light-and-water show at Keruen Sarai
See the gondola canals, bazaar and evening projection show at Turkistan's new tourism complex — and photograph it.
View discovery ↗Ulytau
See the Alasha Khan Mausoleum
Tour the brickwork of one of the oldest monumental adobe mausoleums on the Kazakh steppe — and photograph it.
Ust-Kamenogorsk
Tour the ethnographic village in Oskemen (Ust-Kamenogorsk)
See Kazakh-Russian-Altai folk architecture at the open-air ethnographic museum in the East Kazakhstan capital — and photograph it.
Uzunagach
See the Tamgaly petroglyphs (UNESCO)
See thousands of Bronze Age rock carvings and sun-headed deity figures on the steppe — and photograph it.
Zhezqazghan
Tour the Jochi Khan Mausoleum
See the 13th-century adobe mausoleum of Jochi, Genghis Khan's eldest son, in the very heart of the steppe — and photograph it.
Zhosaly
Hear steppe music at the Korkyt-Ata memorial
Listen to the wind-sounding sound-monument at the memorial to Korkyt, father of the kobyz instrument — and photograph it.